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In tough times we need less talk, more action

No one needs to be told things are changing; what's shocking is the speed of that change.

From the melting Arctic ice pack to the unemployment figures in Canada, even worst-case scenarios are starting to look good. Last week, Statistics Canada announced that 129,000 – of which 71,000 are Ontarians – lost their jobs in January. This represents the largest monthly job loss since such figures were first compiled in 1976.

Add to that a political system that rewards inertia while it encourages intergovernmental hostility and you have a recipe for disaster, a Canadian disaster.

It was interesting to hear the mayors of cities across Canada reacting to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent budget. To a man (and woman), they made it clear they needed the funds now.

The federal government's usual tactic, they complained, is to create a bureaucratic thicket so dense, prickly and dark it's all but impenetrable. Toronto Mayor David Miller has repeatedly railed against the fill-out-the-application-and-wait-for-three-years-for-money-that never-comes approach.

However, in an economy that's collapsing at an unprecedented rate, the need for speed is obvious. Speed, of course, terrifies politicians and bureaucrats. Acting quickly means a loss of power and control.

In the case of the federal government's Building Canada Fund, for example, Ottawa retains absolute discretion over how revenues are spent. It can accept or refuse any proposal on the basis of its priorities, not the applicants'.

If Canadian mayors had their way, funds would flow directly to their coffers to be spent as cities see fit. In Toronto, that would mean public transit.

Then there are the provinces, which bear constitutional responsibility for the urban file, but often with little real enthusiasm for the task. In Ontario, the administration of Premier Dalton McGuinty has demonstrated an understanding of the need to curb sprawl and empower its capital and largest city, Toronto.

But as McGuinty's new-found sombreness indicates, the deindustrialization of Ontario, like everything else, is unfolding much faster than anyone had expected.

Miller insists that cities are best equipped to deal with the economic crisis because they are "nimble." Nimbleness may be a relative concept, but by any objective standard, Toronto isn't exactly fast on its feet. Quickness doesn't rank among our civic virtues.

Cities that get things done in a timely fashion – Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai, Abu Dhabi – are top-down systems where the authorities don't have to bother themselves with the niceties of democratic dissent.

By contrast, in Toronto the decision to build a rail link between Union Station and Pearson airport can go on for decades and still remain unresolved.

What the cities can offer is a list of projects that are ready to start, and have been for years. If the federal stimulus budget is to have any positive effect, it must be directed toward these programs. But chances are it's already too late. Instead of spending the money, and getting those proverbial shovels into the ground, we will continue to bicker.

Perhaps that's why so many hopes in these parts are pinned on masters of the sophistical such as urban theorist Richard Florida and the dean of the U of T's Rotman School of Management, Roger Martin. Their recently released report, Ontario in the Creative Age, concludes – what else – that we need more managers. Oh yes, and more creativity, too.

No one would disagree with that; creativity can be the answer, or at least allow us to find the answer.

But creativity is easier said than done, especially in a country bogged down by governments more preoccupied with each other than the country.

Global warming and economic chaos are only the result; we are the cause.

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